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Tuesday, 25 November 2014

My sewing time these days seems to be filled with bee blocks. I love, love, love bees and swaps but I am in so many that sometimes it becomes a bit overwhelming and time consuming so I have made the tough decision not to continue with some of them.

I really need to leave a little time for starting and finishing projects of my own.

This week I have made my final blocks for 3 bees.

And another supernova block for my new bestie in Oklahoma.

I also finished a mini quilt for an Instagram mini swap. This one is heading to a new home across the seas.

And I finished some cushion covers for the November birthday girl for the Aussie Handmade Birthday Club.

Now that these goodies are all on their way to their new homes, it is time for me to start thinking about Christmas sewing. With 7 nieces, 4 nephews, co-workers and friends to make for I had best start sewing.

Monday, 17 November 2014

I am in quite a few bees and swaps which means I have lots of blocks laying around waiting to be made into quilts.

This past weekend I managed to put 2 tops together ready for quilting.

First is a simple nine patch quilt in pretty blues and greens.

This is for one of my nieces who fell in love with this cushion I made for her last year.

Sometimes the simple things in life are often the best. I love the freshness and simplicity of this quilt and I think this will blend in nicely.

Next I used half of my paper pieced star bee blocks to make this quilt for a co worker who has just had a baby boy 5 weeks premature.

I am hoping to get this quilted in time for the baby to come home but l am stuck for inspiration.
I thought about custom quilting each individual star, then I decided to do the background all the same and maybe highlight some of the features of each star but now I just don't know.
Anyone have any ideas??

I have 12 stars left over so I think I am going to make a few more so that I have enough for a quilt for my husband. This colourway was his suggestion and despite my initial reservations I love how they play together so I want to reward him for that!

But it will have to wait. I have 9 flimsy's (not counting the above) that are patiently waiting to be turned into quilts and I am determined to get a least some of them completed before I start another project. Well that's the plan this week anyway.

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

The last couple of months I have been a very busy little worker bee fulfilling requests of the queens for several bee hives I am part of.

I have so many bee and swap obligations going on that I had to create a spreadsheet to keep track of them all!

Sometimes I have very little time left for me sewing but I can't help it - I love bees and swaps. I enjoy the friendships and I enjoy challenging myself to make blocks I wouldn't normally consider making for myself and in some cases really challenge myself with blocks I have never seen or heard of before.

So in no particular order, here are the bee blocks I have managed to complete since August.

QBA Star Bee Blocks:

QCA Mini Bee Blocks:

QCA Rainbow Bee Blocks:

Supernova Friendship Block Swap:

Birthday Club Gifts:

Phew!

This week I am trying to finish a mini quilt for an Instagram Mini swap and then I need to concentrate on completing a couple of quilts for Christmas gifts and another for a birthday in January.

Tuesday, 4 November 2014

I am happy to report that I have gifted 'Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend' to one of my gorgeous nieces so now I can finally share.

This is a Elizabeth Hartman pattern and I just loved making it. It is no secret that I love scrappy piecing and the string diamonds were a great way to use up scraps as well as yardage.

I was surprised at how easily the whole quilt went together. The instructions and diagrams were clear and easy to follow.

It took me a while to decide how I wanted to quilt it though. After much deliberation I decided to go with meandering feathers for the background. This was my favorite part of the whole quilt. I love the texture the feathers create and I think it softens all of the negative space.

For the diamonds I just went with a small stipple and squiggly lines.

Overall I love the whole quilt and I an happy to report that me niece loved it too. She turned 12 years old and this quilt is a bit more grown up for her which is why it was well received.
The front of the quilt.

The back using left diamond offcuts and a very bright floral print.

And to finish off, the obligatory picture of the binding!

Next up I am trying to finish 2 quilts for Christmas gifts and another one for a birthday in January.
All of the blocks are made, I just have to assemble the tops and get busy quilting!

Sunday, 26 October 2014

A couple of months back I met up with some ladies from a Facebook Group I am in and they all talked about Instagram and how great it was so I was convinced to set up an account. Let's just say that I have became a little bit obsessed with this whole new world of instant gratification. I have been following people, joining in swaps and challenges and completely ignoring my blog.

But now that I have got the infatuation out of my system it's all systems go again.

In August I joined in a Bonnie & Camille charm swap organised by the talented Ms Midge which yielded 112 charms from across all of the B&C collections. Following on from the swap is the Bonnie & Camille Charm-A-Long.

We were challenged to make a project using the charms from the swap for a chance to win some beautiful prizes.

So without further ado, here is my entry:

I have wanted make a circle quilt for some time and I have many different circle projects on my list but I didn't feel any were suitable for this challenge. So I came up with my own design.
I am calling this quilt 'River Walk'.

First I cut random sized circles from some of the charms and machine appliqued them to the background fabric using invisible thread. Tying off and buying threads for all of the circles was the hardest and most tedious part of the project. But once that was done it was time for some fmq fun.

I chose to quilt circles and the plan was to quilt them densely close to the applique and then gradually spread them out towards the edges of the quilt. I don't think I was quite as successful as I had pictured in my head but I can assure you I wasn't about to unpick and start again!

I still have to wash and block the quilt but as usual I was cutting things pretty fine and only just managed to get it complete in time to post before the challenge deadline.
One day I will be organised and allow plenty of time to complete projects so that I do not put myself under so much pressure.......hmmmm, one day.

Tuesday, 12 August 2014

3 mini quilts and a couple of paper pieced blocks have kept me busy for most of my week.

First up is a mini New York Beauty quilt for a birthday swap. This was originally supposed to be a cushion cover but after redrafting the pattern it turned out 24" instead of 12" finished! I still thought about making it a floor cushion but a few people in the swap suggested it would look better as a wall hanging.

Next up I used some of the bonus HST from my Pow Wow quilt to make a mini chevron quilt.
You can never have too many chevrons I say! I love how this one turned out.

And on the spur of the moment I made this mini Nail Polish quilt which was a free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop. It took all of 1 hour to piece then another hour to sandwich and quilt. Super easy and super fast.

In between mini quilts I made 2 more paper pieced blocks. One for me and one for Queen Bee Kate in the QCA Star Bee.

Now, I have absolutely positively got to stop myself from starting anything new until I have made some more progress on my super secret string quilt. Hopefully next week I will have more to report on that.

Tuesday, 29 July 2014

This week I was supposed to be working on a secret project I started a while ago but I got sidetracked making a quilt using Cluck Cluck Sew's Pow Wow pattern.

I have wanted to make this quilt for some time and last week whilst rearranging some fabric I looked at my hoard of Marmalade fabrics by Bonnie & Camille and right then on the spot I decided to use some of it. Pow Wow was the perfect project.

The units went together very quickly.

And before I knew it I had a quilt top. It was super fast and I love the result.

I still have to put a small white border on and once I do the top will measure approx 68" x 55" which is a nice throw size but I am toying with adding a scrappy Marmalade border to increase the size. What do you think - leave it as is or add a border?

This quilt yielded 240 bonus HST's. I have assembled half into a mini chevron quilt top. The other half will be used in a future project (another mini quilt).

In other sewing news, I finished another paper pieced star to add to my collection.

I'm not loving this one but I think it will blend with the others so I will reserve my judgement.

And finally, I completed one more block of my super secret project - here's just a little sneak peek.